


One Day Tell Our Story

by d__T



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: M/M, bucky takes control of his destiny, steve punches things instead of dealing with his emotions, t'challa replaces stark as the background character that supplies all the Good Tech, thanks bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-12 21:36:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12968895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d__T/pseuds/d__T
Summary: Short story inspired by @alby_mangrove's fill to another prompt. Here's the prompt:"Dear mific, the thinking here is that Steve probably got the call at 2:49AM while burning the crops and salting the fields in a HYDRA splinter cell, dropped the operative he was currently punching, roundhouse kicked his way out of there Chuck Norris style in about 9 seconds flat and hauled ass to Wakanda in his hot one-man jet ride that T'Challa gave him to nomad around in, because they've got the triggers out and Bucky's waking up and who's got time to shower and change, NOT STEVE! Anyway, I hope you enjoy these sad grandpas finally getting their filthy hands on each other."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [One day tell our story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12673236) by [alby_mangroves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alby_mangroves/pseuds/alby_mangroves). 



"If they have to go in with little scissors and cut the neurons themselves, then, that's what has to be done." Bucky stops chewing on the edge of his pinky finger to look squarely at Steve. "I was living in Bucharest, but I wasn't alive. I won't be alive until the triggers are gone."

Steve makes a protesting sound, but Bucky cuts him off. "10 words, and I lose everything. Again."

"But you don't have to be frozen again. You don't _have_ to." Steve leans back and crosses his arms. There's a subtext there, _you could be out here with me_. Instead, Steve says, "You've been invaluable to their efforts."

And Bucky had. He had information. Schematics. Case studies. Field manuals. Decades of watching Hydra destroy him from the outside in, and keeping those memories because Hydra never thought to remove them. T'challa had retained researchers to specifically work on Bucky, to work _with_ Bucky, and they had learned early on to not mention the inhumanity of Hydra's techniques. He gave them lucid dispassion, and they would do him the same courtesy.

"Yeah, and I can’t leave Wakanda until the triggers are gone. I can not depend on the hospitality of this fine nation for the rest of my unnatural and unpredictable life.” Bucky states, with slight humor. “I won't be frozen until there's nothing else I can help them with."

Steve hadn't approved of Bucky working with the researchers, all the weeks and months pouring over his own biometrics and his own scans, putting every little piece together. Thought it would be bad for Bucky. Bucky didn't give a damn- who else knew as much as he did?

He neutralizes threats, and there’s one last one to put down.

Steve sighs, pressing his hands flat to his thighs. He looks away. "How long?"

"As long as it takes." Bucky makes little snipping motions with his hand. Steve snorts and Bucky grins at him. "I'll know you're out there this time. When I go under. When I come out. You'll be there."

Steve sniffles at little. "I'll be here."


	2. Chapter 2

The first day after is hard. The hollow space, gouged open again. Steve takes a mission, and fills the space with Hydra blood.

After that, it gets easier. The black uniform grows on him, as does a red-gold beard. Nat has intel, and Fury god-damn-him sometimes appears with intel as well. And Steve takes this intel, rolls it up and swats Hydra splinters like a pesky fly with a newspaper. Smears them on the walls, spills them on the floors, leaves them choking in the snow like that's a mercy killing. Captain America never carried a gun, but Steve Rogers has a couple things to do and right up there at the top is _not die_.

So when he gets the call that Bucky's awake, he's about wrist deep in some Hydra-scum's ribcage and he doesn't catch T'challa's voicemail until he's back at the loaner-ship. At which point he sets course to the ship's home, to where Bucky is, to Wakanda. He leaves bloody fingerprints all over the control surfaces in his haste.


	3. Chapter 3

Wakandan air traffic pulls the ship under their control when he crosses the border, and lands him at the port for the research facility. It's beautiful, like the rest of Wakanda, and elegantly designed besides. Steve stands out obtrusively, white skin black uniform blood dried tacky on his hands and arms and face. The ragged wound across his brow and cheek where some mook got him in a land where the only scars people wear are deliberately inflicted for decoration. A graceful attendant leads Steve through the building to where Bucky is, and then he won't be led anymore.

He stops stock still when he sees Bucky; just the way he left him, but smiling easily now.

"Aw hey, it's only me." Bucky grins.

 _It's only Bucky_. Steve feels like he's going to explode, or maybe start crying. If he puts his hands on Bucky, he'll spoil him. With the filth and the darkness he's carrying. Every life buried under his fingernails, temporarily imbedded in his knuckles and left to make the uniform rank.

Bucky pulls Steve by the shield harness. Pulls him until they're chest to chest, nose to nose. He always did like that harness. "Hey, handsome. Miss me?"

Steve chokes on a laugh and starts crying instead, pulling Bucky close and _oh god_ staining him with his bloody hands and Bucky just holds him tightly until he stops shaking.

And only then does he kiss Steve. Gently, joyously. "Welcome home."

**Author's Note:**

> Previously titled "The Cold is a Choice" which is a whole other can of worms I want to open someday but now is not the time.


End file.
